KR101754732B1 - Inspection apparatus capable of real-time monitoring for electrode tip of welder and welding system with inspection apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring of the electrode tip of a welding spot for spot welding by checking the size of a tip cross-section diameter, contamination or breakage, polishing state, alignment state and pressing force, The electrode tip is illuminated with a visible light and a laser beam using a mirror disposed between the tip ends of the upper and lower electrode tips to obtain a visible light image and a laser beam image using a mirror, , The contamination or breakage of the tip of the electrode tip is detected by the optical beam image, the diameter of the tip of the electrode tip is detected by the laser beam image, the pressing force is measured at the same time, and the alignment state of the electrode tip It is also possible to monitor the test results in real time.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring, and a welding apparatus having the electrode tip inspecting apparatus and a welding apparatus having the electrode tip inspecting apparatus.

The present invention relates to an electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring of the electrode tip of a welding spot for spot welding by checking the size of a tip cross-section diameter, contamination or breakage, polishing state, alignment state and pressing force, And more particularly, to a welding apparatus equipped with the same.

Spot welding is a welding process in which a welding base material is superimposed, a portion to be welded is pressed with a pair of electrodes while a local high current is flown, and the overlapped portion of the welding base material is melted by heat energy generated by resistance. Such spot welding is widely used in automobile body lines and production sites of various products because welding work is simple and deformation of welding base material due to rust or heat does not occur well.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary view of a commonly used welding gun 1 for spot welding. The welding gun 1 includes a pair of shanks 1a and 1b facing each other with their center axes aligned with each other, And an electrode tip 2 for detachably mounting the electrode tip 2 to the electrode tip 2. The electrode tip 2 is spot welded to an electrode composed of the shank 1a and the electrode tip 2. [

The distal end surface 2a of the electrode tip 2 is a flat circular shape and the arc surface 2b starting from the distal end surface 2a and gradually increasing in diameter toward the outer circumference is formed. The diameter of the tip end face 2a, particularly in the tip shape of the electrode tip 2, greatly affects the welding quality. Further, if the tip of the electrode tip 2 is contaminated or broken by foreign substances such as an oxide film or the size of the original diameter of the front end surface is enlarged by repeating the welding process, the welding quality is greatly lowered.

The tip of the electrode tip 2 is inspected using an image photographed from the front side. The tip of the electrode tip 2 is polished by a tip dresser at the time of defective according to the inspection result. When the tip of the electrode tip is polished, To be put into the process.

Generally, in order to inspect not only the diameter of the distal end face 2a but also the contamination and breakage portions, the entire tip of the electrode tip is uniformly illuminated, and the outline of the distal end face 2a is detected in the image obtained by photographing, (2a) diameter, and judges whether or not it is suitable according to the size of the contamination and the damaged portion detected by the color brightness difference or the color difference.

However, in the image obtained by photographing the tip of the electrode tip in this manner, since the outline of the end face 2a is not clearly shown, it is difficult to obtain the correct end face diameter.

On the other hand, in order to accurately obtain the diameter of the electrode tip end face, it is possible to measure the diameter of the end face by photographing from two sides, but in the manufacturing process, it should not interfere with the activity of the welding robot if possible.

The welding apparatus includes a welding robot that mounts the welding gun 1 on an arm and moves the welding gun 1 to a welding position and welds the welding gun 1 to the welding gun 1, A welding controller for controlling the entire welding process such as a cooling water supply device for lowering the electrode temperature of the welding gun 1, a tip dresser for polishing the electrode tip, operation of the welding robot, supply of welding current, circulation of cooling water, , A monitoring device for monitoring the welding situation controlled by the welding controller by using various sensors, and for managing the welding process and the welding quality.

Therefore, the electrode tip inspecting apparatus should be installed at an installation position that does not interfere with the welding apparatus, and in particular, should be constructed to have a minimum size at an installation position that does not interfere with the behavior of the welding robot. Therefore, it is preferable to accurately obtain the shape of the tip of the electrode tip with an image obtained by photographing the tip of the electrode tip from the front side.

KR 10-1393755 B1 2014.05.02.

A problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a welding robot capable of accurately detecting the diameter of a front end face while measuring the contamination and breakage of the tip of the electrode tip, measuring the pressing force, And an electrode tip inspecting device capable of real time monitoring that can be installed and used so as not to interfere with the activity of the welding robot in the field, and a welding apparatus equipped with the same.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring, comprising: a pair of electrode tips mounted on a welding gun so as to face each other, A body having a cross section facing the inside; A camera which is housed in the main body of the main body orthogonal to the vertical line connecting the light receiving axes between the upper and lower holes; A visible light source that irradiates visible light between the upper and lower holes; A laser light source for irradiating a laser beam between the upper and lower holes; A mirror disposed between the upper and lower holes to reflect the visible light and the laser beam so as to be irradiated to the tip of the electrode tip seated in the upper and lower holes and to reflect the image of the tip of the electrode tip to be imaged by the camera; And a controller for detecting contamination or breakage of the tip of the electrode tip from the visible light image among the images captured by the camera and detecting the diameter of the electrode tip end face from the laser beam image to determine whether the tip of the electrode tip is defective .

The mirror is constituted by a mirror rotatably installed, and the images of the up and down holes are alternately picked up by the camera.

A half mirror is mounted on the light receiving axis of the camera and the visible light of the visible light source is reflected on the half mirror so as to be directed toward the mirror so that the optical axis of the visible light and the light receiving axis of the camera coincide with each other.

Wherein the laser light source irradiates a line beam, and the controller detects the diameter of the electrode tip line section from the laser beam image photographed by the camera by a photon triangulation method.

The line beam irradiated from the laser light source is two parallel line beams, and the controller detects two line beams in the laser beam image photographed by the camera and detects the line tip from four points bent at the edge of the electrode tip line cross- And the diameter of the end face of the electrode tip is detected after the edge outline of the end face is obtained.

Wherein the two parallel line beams are formed by irradiating one line beam emitted from one laser light source obliquely to a semitransparent mirror and then reflected by two parallel line beams and irradiating the mirror.

The controller rotates the mirror before the tip of the electrode tip is seated in the hole and controls to obtain a visible light image of the tip of the upper and lower electrode tip, .

The upper and lower holes on which the tips of the electrode tips are seated are each formed on a plate for pressing the strain gauge by pressing, and the pressing force of the electrode tip is measured by a strain gauge.

According to the present invention configured as described above, the tip of the electrode tip is illuminated with visible light and a laser beam to detect a contaminated or damaged portion with a visible light image, and the diameter of the electrode tip end section is detected by the laser beam image. The diameter of the front end face can be detected with a smaller error than when the end face diameter is detected.

In addition, since the visible light image and the laser beam image of the upper and lower electrode tips are captured using one mirror and one camera, the present invention can be manufactured in a compact size.

Further, in order to obtain an accurate front-end diameter, the present invention uses two laser beams, which are illuminated with two laser beams, so that an accurate front-end diameter can be obtained without increasing the size.

Further, it is difficult to illuminate the front end surface with proper illumination under the inspection condition in which the tip of the electrode tip is inspected on the basis of the distance between the tips of the upper and lower electrode tips generally set to approximately 30 mm. However, By using the principle of regularly reflecting on the distal end surface, a clear image can be obtained and the contamination or broken part can be accurately detected.

1 is an illustration of a spot welding gun;
2 is an external perspective view of an electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a view showing the state of use of the electrode tip inspecting apparatus capable of real-time monitoring. FIG. 3 is a view showing a state before the electrode tip 2 is placed in the holes 12 and 13 of the inspection block 11, (B) in a state in which it is seated in the holes 12 and 13 of the inspection block 11. Fig.
4 is an external perspective view (a) of the electrode tip inspection apparatus showing the moving body 53 for rotating the mirror 50, and a perspective view (b) of the electrode tip inspection apparatus in a state in which the body 10 is removed.
5 is an internal side view of an electrode tip inspection apparatus capable of real-time monitoring.
FIG. 6 is an inner side view of the mirror 50 rotated clockwise by 90 degrees in FIG.
7 is an internal top view of an electrode tip inspection apparatus capable of real-time monitoring.
8 is a view for explaining reflected light when the laser beam is incident on the translucent mirror 31. Fig.
9 is an exemplary view of a laser beam image photographed by the camera 40. Fig.
10 is a configuration diagram of a welding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a perspective view of an electrode tip inspection apparatus capable of real-time monitoring according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a state view of the electrode tip inspecting apparatus shown in FIG. 2, which shows a state (a) before the electrode tip is seated and a view (b) in which the electrode tip is seated.

4 is a view showing constituent elements accommodated in the main body 10 and components for rotating the mirror 50. The moving tip 53 for separating the moving body 53 for rotating the mirror 50, And a perspective view (b) showing components housed inside the main body 10 including the inspection block 11 in a state in which the main body 10 is removed.

The electrode tip inspecting apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for inspecting the tip of an electrode tip by operating a pair of electrode tips mounted on a welding gun such that the welding tip presses the welding base material upward and downward, The visible light source 20, the laser light source 30, the camera 40, and the driving cylinder 60 are accommodated in the inner space, and the visible light source 20, the laser light source 30, And a controller 70 for controlling the operation of components accommodated in or mounted on the main body 10. The main body 10 has a body 10 formed integrally with the inspection block 11 so as to protrude forward.

The inspection block 11 is formed such that the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 face each other in the vertical direction and the inner space extends in the horizontal direction in the inner space of the main body 10 and between the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 And is a component in which the mirror 50 is disposed.

The upper and lower holes 12 and 13 are holes that come in contact with the edge of a pair of electrode tips 2 mounted on the welding gun 1 so as to face each other, So that the end surface 2a is exposed toward the inner space. That is, when the tip of the upper electrode tip is seated in the upper hole 12 and the tip of the lower electrode tip is seated in the upper hole 13, A part of the entrance surface 2b comes into contact with the holes 12 and 13 so that the front end surfaces 2a face each other through the inner space of the inspection block 11. [

In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to measure the pressing force of the electrode tip 2 which is seated while pressing the upper and lower holes 12 and 13, the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 are formed by arranging the strain gauge 15 at four corners A through hole was formed in the plate member 14 provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the inspection block 11 and the pressing force at the time when the tip of the electrode tip was seated was measured by the strain gauge 15. Of course, holes are formed in the inspection block 11 in accordance with the positions of the holes 12 and 13 formed in the plate member 14. Here, the pressing force sensed by the strain gauge 15 is transmitted to the controller 70, and the controller 70 controls the pressing force applied to the four corners of the plate material 14 according to the pressing force applied to the four corners of the plate material 14, , 13) of the electrode tip (2) can be obtained.

The mirror 50 is disposed in the middle between the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 so that the mirror 50 is inclined at 45 degrees upward and 45 degrees upward from the direction facing the inner space of the main body 10 As shown in Fig.

The mirror 50 is rotated by the driving cylinder 60 as follows.

A moving body 53 moving forward and backward is mounted on a side surface of the inspection block 11 by a driving cylinder 60. A limit hole 52 formed on the side surface of the inspection block 11 is formed at the front end of the moving body 53 A connecting pin 54 is provided which fits in the pin hole 55 formed at one side of the mirror 50 (the one side of the rotatable block by fixing the mirror and providing the rotating shaft).

Here, the limit hole 52 is a hole formed long in the front-rear direction so as to restrict the range of rotation of the mirror 50 to a range between 45 ° upward and 45 ° downward. The pin hole 55 is formed below or above the rotating shaft 51 and is formed to be longer than the diameter of the connecting pin 54 so that the pin hole 55 can be rotated in advance by forward and backward movement.

The drive cylinder 60 may be constructed of, for example, a pneumatic cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder.

When the driving cylinder 60 is operated to engage the connection pin 54 at one end of the limit hole 52 and then to the other end of the limit hole 52, Is tilted at an angle of 45 ° upward from the direction of looking at the inner space of the main body 10, and then tilted at an angle of 45 ° downward.

The image of the tip of the electrode tip that is seated in the upper hole 12 and the image of the tip of the electrode tip that is seated in the lower hole 13 are alternately reflected by the mirror 50 to be perpendicular to the vertical line connecting the upper and lower holes. (Not shown). Here, according to the reflection by the mirror 50, the angle of incidence is 45 ° and the angle of reflection is 45 °, and the angle between the axis of the incident light and the axis of the reflected light becomes 90 °.

The visible light source 20, the laser light source 30 and the camera 40 accommodated in the inner space of the main body 10 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 and FIGS.

5 and 6 are internal side views of the electrode tip inspecting apparatus. FIG. 5 is a view showing the mirror 50 rotated upward by 45 degrees. FIG. 6 is a view showing the mirror 50 in a state shown in FIG. Direction and turned toward the downward direction at 45 [deg.]. 7 is an internal top view of the electrode tip inspection apparatus.

The camera 40 is accommodated in the main body 10 perpendicularly to the vertical line connecting the light receiving shafts (axes of light incident on the camera) between the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 and is bent at 90 degrees by the mirror 50, The tip of the electrode tip is photographed.

Since the visible light source 20 irradiates visible light toward the middle between the upper and lower holes 12 and 13, the visible light is reflected by the mirror 50 and illuminates the tip of the electrode tip. By such illumination, the image of the tip of the electrode tip is reflected by the mirror 50 and picked up clearly by the camera 40.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a half mirror 21 is disposed at an angle of 45 ° with respect to the optical axis of the image captured by the camera 40, so that the normal line of the reflection surface of the half mirror 21, 40 and the visible light source 20 are irradiated from the one direction toward the half mirror 21 at an incident angle of 45 degrees so that the optical axis of the visible light irradiated toward the mirror 50, Coaxial illumination coaxial to the optical axis of the visible light image reflected by the mirror 50 and captured by the camera 40 is applied. That is, the optical axis of the optical system for illuminating the tip of the electrode tip by the half mirror 21 and the optical system for photographing the tip of the electrode tip are the same.

By applying the coaxial illumination as described above, the light reflected on the flat surface at the tip of the electrode tip is regularly reflected and picked up brightly on the camera 40, and the boundaries and edges of the scratched or contaminated portions are irregularly reflected, So that it is possible to obtain a visible light image that can clearly recognize flaws, contaminated portions and edges. In addition, by applying coaxial illumination, the visible light source 20 for obtaining a clear visible light image can be simplified and installed in a narrow space, and the body 10 can be made small.

The laser light source 30 emits a laser beam toward the middle between the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 so that the emitted laser beam is reflected by the mirror 50 and then irradiated to the tip of the electrode tip. Thus, the laser beam reflected at the tip of the electrode tip is reflected by the mirror 50, and is then picked up by the camera 40.

That is, according to the present invention, the mirror 50 reflects the visible light of the visible light source 20 and the laser beam of the laser light source 30 so as to irradiate the tip of the electrode tip, So that a visible light image and a laser beam image with respect to the tip of the electrode tip can be obtained.

The laser light source 30 is for obtaining the diameter of the electrode tip end surface 2a by detecting the tip shape of the electrode tip by an optical triangulation method using a laser beam, The incident angle of the laser beam incident on the tip end 2a of the tip of the electrode tip and the angle of incidence of the laser beam incident on the tip end 2a of the electrode tip There is an angle other than '0' between the reflection angle of the reflected laser beam.

The basic technique of the three-dimensional shape measuring method using the photon trigonometry is to use an angle between an incident light and a reflected light on an object to be measured and change the position of the image formed on the imaging surface of the light receiving system according to the height of the surface.

By irradiating a laser beam as described above, it is possible to obtain an image that can clearly distinguish the boundary between the leading end face and the leading end face of the electrode tip at the tip of the electrode tip.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the laser beam is a line beam (or a slit beam).

However, in the case of using one line beam, since the line beam must be irradiated so as to pass through the center of the electrode tip end surface 2a precisely, it is difficult to precisely calibrate the irradiation direction of the line beam After correcting calibration, errors may occur even during actual use. In addition, when the cross-shaped laser beam is irradiated to obtain the diameter of the electrode tip end face, or when the two laser light sources 30 are used, the volume of the main body 10 is increased.

Accordingly, in the present invention, one line beam is irradiated from the laser light source 30, and the line beam irradiated on the tip of the electrode tip reflected by the mirror 50 becomes two parallel line beams.

To this end, a semitransparent mirror (31) is disposed near one side of the half mirror (21) provided on the light receiving axis of the camera (40), and one laser beam emitted from one laser light source (30) So that the mirror 31 is obliquely irradiated and then reflected by the semitransparent mirror 31 to face the mirror 50.

The semitransparent mirror 31 has characteristics such that reflected light which can be visually perceived visually on the front and rear sides of the light incident is generated, and the reflectance on the front side and the back side is made almost equal.

As shown in Figure 8, this semi-transparent when the mirror 31 the laser incident light (L _i) in an angle incident to the angle θ, there is a reflection light (L _o1) which is reflected from the front, and the incident light (L _i) is transmitted The reflected light L _o2 reflected by the back side is also present and is reflected by the two reflected _lights L _o1 and L _o2 . When a laser line beam is incident, it is reflected by two parallel line beams.

Since two parallel line beams are reflected by the mirror 50 and irradiated to the tip of the electrode tips, two line beams are also present in the laser beam image photographed by the camera 40. [ Of course, the two parallel line beams must control the line beam irradiation direction of the laser light source 30 or the incident angle and the reflection angle of the translucent mirror 31 so as to pass the electrode tip end face 2a.

9 shows an example of a laser beam image photographed by the camera 40. The controller 70 detects two line beams L that are bent at the edge of the electrode tip end surface 2a in the laser beam image (boundary with the arc surface 2b) To obtain four broken points (P), thereby calculating the diameter of the circle formed by the four points (P). Since the circle at this time corresponds to the outline of the edge of the electrode tip end 2a, the diameter of the circle becomes the diameter of the electrode tip end 2a.

9, it is only necessary to irradiate the line beam at a predetermined angle with respect to the normal direction of the electrode tip end surface 2a. Therefore, in the image of the tip of the electrode tip taken by the camera 40, It is possible to obtain an image of a lyme beam bent at the boundary between the surface 2a and the surface 2b.

Since the mirror 50 and the half mirror 21 are disposed and the visible light is regularly reflected on the end face of the electrode tip by the coaxial illumination, the contaminated or damaged portion of the tip of the electrode tip can be precisely Can be detected. In addition, since the electrode tip line section is detected by the photo-trigonometric method using the laser light source 30 that emits one line beam and the semitransparent mirror 31 that reflects two line beams to one line beam incident, The diameter of the cross section can be obtained with a precise value.

In addition, it is difficult to illuminate the front end surface with proper illumination under the inspection condition in which the tip of the electrode tip is inspected while adjusting the distance between the upper and lower electrode tips to be approximately 30 mm. However, , The mirror 50 is arranged and illuminated and photographed by coaxial illumination, so that it can be configured as a slimmer structure so as to sufficiently satisfy inspection conditions. Accordingly, the present invention can be applied to the welding site without interfering with the operation of the welding robot performing the welding process using the welding gun.

The present invention configured as described above is controlled by the controller 70 to check the alignment of the electrode tips, the pressing force of the electrode tips, the contamination / breakage of the tip of the electrode tips, and the diameter of the electrode tip end surface.

First, the welding gun 1 is moved by the welding robot to align the tips of the pair of electrode tips 2 with the upper and lower holes 12 and 13 of the inspection block 11, The controller 70 operates in the following sequence in conjunction with the operation of the welding gun 1. The controller 70 operates in the following sequence.

The controller 70 controls the drive cylinder 60 and the camera 40 so as to obtain a visible light image of both electrode tip ends while keeping the mirror rotated before the tip of the electrode tip lands on the holes 12 and 13. At this time, the tip of the electrode tip is photographed through the holes 12 and 13, and visible light can be irradiated to the visible light source 20.

Then, the controller 70 checks the alignment state by detecting the entire contour shape and the center point position of the electrode tip end face viewed from the front side, from the visible light image of the upper and lower electrode tip obtained before seating. That is, since it is possible to detect the inclined angle of the electrode tip from the shape of the contour and to detect that the electrode tip is not inclined when an accurate circle is formed, it is judged as defective when the inclined angle exceeds the reference set value. It is also possible to determine from the center point position whether or not the electrode tip 2 is defective with respect to the origin at the time of welding with the electrode tip 2. The degree of deviation between the center axes of the upper and lower electrode tips 2 is detected, Can also be determined.

Next, the controller 70 determines that the electrode tip 2 is defective if the pressing force detected by the strain gauge 15 does not satisfy the reference set value when the tip of the electrode tip 2 is seated in the upper and lower holes 12, 13 .

Next, the controller 70 performs an operation of irradiating the tip of the electrode tip seated in the upper hole 12 with visible light and a laser beam, and irradiating the tip of the electrode tip, which is seated in the lower hole 13, with visible light and a laser beam, The laser light source 20, the camera 40 and the driving cylinder 60 are controlled so that the visible light image and the laser beam image are respectively directed to the pair of electrode tips to the camera 40 ).

The controller 70 detects the contamination and breakage of the tip of the electrode tip from the visible light image to judge whether or not there is a defect due to contamination or breakage and detects the size of the diameter of the electrode tip end 2a as a laser beam image, It is judged whether or not the size of the cross-sectional surface 2a is proper.

Here, it is possible to obtain a visible light image and a laser beam image sequentially by irradiating the tip of each electrode tip with visible light and a laser beam at time intervals.

It is also possible to obtain a single visible light image and a laser beam image, and judge whether or not the single visible light image and the laser beam image are defective by irradiating the tip of each electrode tip with visible light and a laser beam simultaneously. In this case, since the controller 70 obtains the image in which the laser beam image is superimposed on the visible light image, the controller 70 determines the contamination or the damaged portion based on the segment information of the front end surface 2a and the arc surface 2b obtained by reading the laser beam image It can be examined separately by the position of the front end face 2a and the face 2b.

Meanwhile, the electrode tip inspection apparatus according to the present invention includes a communication port for communication with the welding controller for operation with the welding apparatus, and operates as a member of the welding apparatus.

10 is a configuration diagram of a welding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The welding apparatus includes a welding robot 1, a welding robot 3 mounted on the arm 3 ', a current supply device 6 for supplying a welding current to the electrode of the welding gun, a cooling water supply device The welding robot 1 and the welding gun 2, the supply of the welding current, the circulation of the cooling water, the electrode tip polishing, etc., the welding process (welding process) A welding controller 4 for controlling the welding process, a welding controller 4 for controlling the welding process, a welding controller 4 for controlling the welding process, welding pressure, welding pressure, welding temperature, As a well-known technical component.

The welding apparatus according to the present invention further includes an electrode tip inspecting apparatus which is connected to communicate with the welding controller 4. Hereinafter, it will be explained that the difference from the known technical constituents is included according to the inclusion of the electrode tip inspecting apparatus.

It is possible to set the inspection timing by the electrode tip inspecting apparatus to the welding controller 4.

The electrode tip inspecting apparatus performs inspection operation when the electrode tip 2 is moved to the inspection block 11 in accordance with the inspection timing set in the welding controller 4 under the control of the welding controller 4, The result of the inspection including the contamination or damage portion, the diameter of the front end face, and the size of the pressing force is transmitted to the welding controller 4 via the communication port to be reflected in the operation for the electrode tip management (polishing operation) To be transferred to the welding monitoring device 8 to be recorded and managed, and utilized as data for optimum process control.

Specifically, the inspection timing is set after the electrode tip is polished with the tip dresser, after the welding standby time, or after the predetermined number of times of welding has been performed.

Then, the inspection result obtained by operating in accordance with the inspection timing is transmitted to the welding controller 4 through the communication port, and the welding controller 4 determines and performs the following control operation according to the inspection result as follows.

The welding controller 4 performs a welding process using an electrode tip when it is determined that the polishing condition is appropriate in the inspection result after polishing and when a contamination or breakage portion is detected or the diameter of the front end face is deviated from the reference setting value And controls the tip dresser 5 to repeat the process when it is determined.

When the state of the tip of the electrode tip is judged not to be appropriate in the inspection results after the welding standby time or the predetermined number of times of welding during the welding process, the welding controller 4 performs polishing with the tip dresser 5 And if it is judged to be suitable, the welding process is carried out without grinding.

Further, in the inspection result, if it is determined that the alignment state of the electrode tip is poor, the welding controller 4 issues an alarm, for example, to recognize the alignment misfit state.

By transmitting the inspection result to the welding monitoring device 8 in real time, the welding monitoring device 8 performs history management while real-time monitoring of the received inspection result, analyzes the correlation between the welding monitoring data and the inspection result, , Which is used for process control such as polishing cycle setting, welding quality control, defect tracking, and electrode consumption management, and uses the generated data for process control.

In other words, by grasping the state change of the electrode tip due to repeated welding, the polishing cycle is reset, the state of the electrode tip is matched with the welding monitoring data to assure the welding quality, and the state of the electrode tip And the degree of consumption of the electrode tip according to the welding process can be grasped and utilized for process control.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, . ≪ / RTI > Accordingly, such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be determined by the following claims.

1: welding gun 1a: shank
2: electrode tip 2a: distal end surface 2b:
10: main body 11: inspection block
12: upper hole 13: lower hole 14: plate material
15: Strain gauge
20: visible light source 21: half mirror
30: laser light source 31: translucent mirror
40: camera
50: Mirror 51: Rotation shaft 52: Limit hole
53: moving body 54: connecting pin 55: pin hole
60: drive cylinder
70: controller

Claims (9)

A pair of electrode tips mounted on the welding gun so as to face each other so as to face the edge of the tip over the upper and lower holes so that at least the tip end of the electrode tip looks inside;
A camera which is housed in the main body of the main body orthogonal to the vertical line connecting the light receiving axes between the upper and lower holes;
A visible light source that irradiates visible light between the upper and lower holes;
A laser light source for irradiating a laser beam between the upper and lower holes;
A mirror disposed between the upper and lower holes to reflect the visible light and the laser beam so as to be irradiated to the tip of the electrode tip seated in the upper and lower holes and to reflect the image of the tip of the electrode tip to be imaged by the camera;
A controller that detects contamination or breakage of the tip of the electrode tip from the visible light image among the images captured by the camera, detects the diameter of the electrode tip end face from the laser beam image, and determines whether or not the tip of the electrode tip is defective;
, ≪ / RTI >
The laser light source irradiates a line beam,
Wherein the controller detects the diameter of a cross section of an electrode tip from a laser beam image photographed by a camera using a photon triangulation method. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the mirror is constituted by a single rotatably mounted mirror so that images in the up and down direction are picked up alternately in the camera. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein a half mirror is mounted on the light receiving axis of the camera and the visible light of the visible light source is reflected on the half mirror so as to be directed toward the mirror so that the optical axis of the visible light and the light receiving axis of the camera coincide with each other. Monitorable electrode tip inspection device. delete The method according to claim 1,
The line beam irradiated by the laser light source is two parallel line beams,
The controller detects two line beams from the laser beam image captured by the camera and acquires the edge contour of the electrode tip line section from four points bent at the edge of the electrode tip line section and then detects the diameter of the electrode tip line section Electrode tip inspection apparatus capable of real-time monitoring. 6. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the two parallel line beams are formed by irradiating one line beam emitted from one laser light source obliquely to a translucent mirror and then reflected by two parallel line beams and irradiating the mirror to the mirror. Tip Inspection device. The method according to claim 1,
The controller rotates the mirror before the tip of the electrode tip is seated in the hole and controls to obtain a visible light image of the tip of the upper and lower electrode tip, And the electrode tip is inspected in real time. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein each of the upper and lower holes in which the tip of the electrode tip is seated is formed in a plate material pressing the strain gauge by pressing each of the upper and lower holes, and the pressing force of the electrode tip is measured by a strain gauge. A welding controller for controlling a welding robot equipped with a welding gun equipped with an electrode tip to perform a welding process and polishing an electrode tip to a tip dresser in accordance with a polishing cycle; and a welding controller for controlling the welding voltage, the welding current, A welding apparatus comprising a welding monitoring device for collecting welding monitoring data from a welding controller, the welding monitoring data including a welding condition,
An electrode tip inspecting apparatus according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 for communicating with a welding controller,
The welding controller controls the electrode tip to be inspected by the electrode tip inspecting device after the electrode tip is polished and then the welding standby time or a predetermined number of times of welding is performed and the electrode tip is polished Lt; / RTI >
The welding monitoring device receives the inspection results from the welding controller, monitors the history, and analyzes the correlation between the welding monitoring data and the inspection results to determine the polishing cycle setting, welding quality control, welding defect tracking, And generates information for management.

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